A primary goal in producing lumber is to obtain as many useful board feet as possible from a given quantity of wood. A problem in achieving this goal is that some of the natural characteristics of wood and some of the properties imparted to wood during the curing process limit the amount of useful lumber which may be produced from a log. For example, natural characteristics such as knot holes and resin deposits limit the useful yield. Undesirable properties such as checking, warping, bending, twisting and decaying may be both natural tendencies as well as properties imparted by curing.
Another goal in the production of useful lumber is to cut logs into useful lumber as quickly as possible after harvesting of trees. A problem in achieving this goal is that allowing a cut log to cure (or dry) naturally without the aid of any artificial process is time-consuming and does not help reduce occurrences of the wood-deforming properties described above that are inherent in the natural drying of wood. Some current wood processing methods, such as treatment with chromated copper arsenate (CCA) or kiln drying, which reduce curing time may also alter the characteristics of wood such that many board feet of lumber cannot be used. Thus, it can be appreciated that it would be useful to have a method that both increases the yield of useful lumber from logs and reduces the time to produce useful lumber from harvested timber.